Maria Blacklock admitted to fraud, with the court hearing she had even faked her mother's voice on the phone to continue benefiting from her pension

She admitted to fraud by false representation as well as money laundering at Inner London Crown Court, handed a suspended sentence of two years jail and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard that the 58-year-old and her mother had moved to Las Vegas in the mid-2000s, with Blacklock's mother Phyllis Millman passing away in 2011.

Blacklock then falsified certificates to make it look like her mother was still alive, emptying her bank accounts of the money still being paid to the elderly woman for state pensions and private payments from Phoenix Group.

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The fraud was only discovered when Blacklock moved back to Maida Vale in west London in 2013 when her husband fell ill.

It was there that a former friend, who was owned £14,000 by Blacklock, became suspicious after seeing the woman had her dead mother's credit card.

She then tipped off the Department of Work and Pensions, with officers finding that Blacklock had made more than 100 cash withdrawals from her mother's account.

Audio of Blacklock impersonating her mother were also revealed, even bravely asking a worker how much money she would be given on her birthday.

Blacklock squandered thousands in Las Vegas while impersonating her mother

The same account had been used to pay for flights to and from Las Vegas.

City of London Police financial investigator Simon Styles said: "In my 30 years as a police officer and investigator I have never come across an act that was as callous and cold-hearted as this.

"From our enquiries, we saw that at the time immediately prior to and after her mother's death, Blacklock was at various casinos gambling away her mother's money."

He said that Blacklock had deliberately set out to defraud a number of groups.

Chris Coles, Head of Financial Crime Prevention for Phoenix said: "We worked closely with the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department on this case and are proud to support their efforts in clamping down on insurance fraud which affects both Phoenix and the industry as whole.

"Many innocent customers are impacted by fraud each year but through our work in this area, we have managed to prevent almost £30 million in pension scams alone."

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